The Albuquerque area’s newest bank is poised to become a $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion regional community bank and hopes to fill the void left by the failures of the area’s two largest community banks.

Bank of the Rio Grande, which opened a loan production office in Albuquerque earlier this year, has reached $278 million in capital, which could translate to up to $3.5 billion in assets, bank Chairman and CEO Ken McCormick said.

Typically, for every dollar in capital a bank has, it can lend about $10.

“We are hoping to fill the void left by [the failures] of First Community [Bank] and Charter [Bank] and we are happy to bring community banking” to the area, McCormick said in an interview with the New Mexico Business Weekly. He added that much of the bank’s growth will occur in the Albuquerque and Santa Fe metropolitan areas.

The bank will focus on commercial lending with an emphasis on owner-occupied buildings, McCormick said. It will also offer businesses cash management and private banking products.

Michelle Coons, president of the bank’s Albuquerque and Santa Fe operations, said the bank has federal regulatory approval to begin taking deposits in the area by the end of September. It has been making loans out of its 4,000-square-foot Albuquerque Old Town area office since earlier this year.

Coons joined the bank in May after six years with Bank of the West in Albuquerque.

Bank of the Rio Grande was founded in 1985 in Las Cruces. It was purchased in January by Strategic Growth Bancorp Inc., an El Paso bank holding company headed by real estate tycoon Bill Sanders. Since the purchase, SGB has been raising capital, McCormick said.

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